Back story.....I bought My Surface Pro on Launch morning at the South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA. I was the 5th person in line. I bought the Surface Pro, a Type Cover, The Nixon Surface case and the Extended Warranty for $99.00.

I babied my surface and it was always in the case when not in use. Early on, I noticed that there were some very small bubbles in the finish on the back. Initially I was kinda disappointed, but then figured it wasn't a big deal (they were pretty tiny). This along with a few other minor problems were not enough for me to drive an hour to Costa Mesa to return the Surface.

Anyways....Flash forward to last Friday. I was cleaning and looking over the Surface and noticed that the paint was missing on the left edge of the kickstand. I was pretty disappointing and trying to figure out how it could of happened. I thought maybe the zipper on the Nixon case was rubbing it when I put it in and took it out of the case, so I tried it out. The way I put my Surface in the case the "right" edge of the kickstand rubs the zipper on the case, and that side was perfectly fine! so that wasn't it.... The only thing that made sense was the fact that the edge that was worn was the edge that is always touching my palm when I am grasping the surface. So I decided to see how easily the paint came off. I gave the edge of the worn off paint a light scratch with my nail, and it came off really easy! I scratched it lightly all along the edge and the paint flaked off very easily. At that point I tried scratching the exact opposite side of the kickstand and nothing happened. I scratched it to the point that my nail was bending and it didn't even suffer a scratch. I now knew that something was wrong with the finish on my Surface Pro. This was unacceptable for a thousand dollar device that I babied. I called the Microsoft store and told them I needed to make an appointment to have my Surface inspected for return.

Saturday 6/1/13.....My cousin and I arrived at the Microsoft store with everything that came with my Surface Pro, the Box, the charger and the Pen. I was greeted by an employee that asked if I needed help. I told her why I was there and she showed me to a seat at the bar, she offered me something to drink while she checked me in and got someone to help me. Sitting at the bar, my cousin noticed they have a large flat screen TV mounted that shows the first names of people with appointments and the time of and reason for their appointment. According to this screen, I was there for "Help with Office"! :LOL:

Twenty or so minutes go by and a guy finally shows up and asks me what the problem is. I tell him about it and show him how easily the paint comes off, then the bubbles. He says "Wow! Iv'e never seen this before"..... "You mind if I switch it out?" I told him "No, I was hoping you would." he leaves and comes back with a new Surface Pro and I ask him if it is a refurbished one, he told me it was brand new. I then told him I had the charger, pen and original box for my surface. He tells me in a low voice that I can just keep them. I was pretty happy about that. He starts typing in the computer and I tell him that I bought the Extended warranty and show him my original receipt. He didn't know anything about it up until now and never asked about it. He continues to type away and then tells me what the deal is. I will get a new Surface Pro but it is going to cost me $50, I will get to keep my original charger and pen and receive the new ones and also that the new Surface's 2 year warranty will start as of 6/1/13 and this will not count towards one of the two times I can return it (for some reason). I told him that I was never once informed that I would ever have to pay a $50.00 deductible for the warranty (in fact I never received any paperwork describing the warranty I bought). He then tells me that they shouldn't even be warrantying the Surface because technically there is nothing wrong with it and it still works. I told him it should be warrantied because of obvious poor craftsmanship. He says, this is all he can do. So I thought about it for a second or so and gave him my credit card, since I was getting a second charger and pen out of the deal. And it was done. My new Surface Pro has no bubbles in the paint, the paint feels smoother and the touch screen is seated better than my "launch" Surface Pro (the screen had always been slightly raised in the top portion and you could feel it depress when you grabbed it there). Overall I'm only slightly disappointed with having to actually pay to use a warranty I bought, but pretty happy that I got a "new" and "better made" Surface Pro.

Just wanted to share my experience. I wish I would of got pictures or video of the crappy paint. I didn't realize I should of till he was boxing it up for the return.

TL;DR

Launch day Surface Pro had bad paint and an uneven screen. Have extended warranty. Returned it 6/1/13 for a "better made" and "brand new one" and got to keep my charger and pen, had to pay $50 deductible. The 2 year warranty on the new surface started on 6/1/13 (for some reason) and I can still return it 2 times according to the guy.

I'm not sure that this would even be legal here (Australia). I replaced mine for free under warranty the other day with no problems. Although this was at a local retailer (Harvey Norman) and it was 3 days after I bought it.

I should be clear, I'm positive that the $50 was a replacement fee due to damage to your Surface (not "Warranty" in the traditional sense). In this case, re-reading your situation, I'm not sure where they got off charging you, because their replacement, under warranty, was clearly due to defects in workmanship on their part.